Coconino News

Northern Arizona University issued the following announcement on Sept. 17.

SPAC and CSAC, the two councils advocating on behalf of staff members at NAU, joined to create a new council representing all staff members. The first meeting of the new council is at 9 a.m. on Sept. 23 in the ARD Large Pod. Zoom links also are available on the Staff Advisory Council website.

What is the Staff Advisory Council?

The Staff Advisory Council (SAC) is the product of a merger between the Classified Staff Advisory Council (CSAC) and the Service Professional Advisory Council (SPAC). Staff at NAU have been represented by these two councils depending on their classification but over the past year, the councils joined together to create the unified Staff Advisory Council.

The Staff Advisory Council’s mission is to provide a forum for discussing the role of staff and for understanding, sharing and supporting staff interests throughout the university community. The council advocates for the needs of staff and serves as a conduit for communication and information exchange between university staff and executive leadership on existing and proposed policies, procedures and programs that impact or are of interest to staff.

Why did the councils merge?

 For the past five years, SPAC and CSAC worked closely together to host joint meetings for guest speakers, representing staff on various committees and working together on initiatives like the warm clothing drive. To avoid duplication of efforts, the two councils agreed having a unified voice for staff made sense. With both councils consisting of volunteers, it was important to shift focus back into our mission, vision and values to better align with NAU’s mission, vision and values.

There will continue to be a SPAC and CSAC representative seat on the new merged council to help navigate any issues specific to service professionals or classified staff.

Why should someone join the Staff Advisory Council?

 The council allows staff members to gain a better understanding of the inner workings of a higher education institution and the ability to network with a variety of different staff and leadership from throughout campus and statewide. Council members have opportunities to be able to communicate with a variety of different departments/units to provide insight into decisions that are made while being a voice for staff on certain policies, procedures, task forces, etc. Lastly, the Staff Advisory Council provides many opportunities to give back to both the NAU and Flagstaff communities.

Many of the CSAC and SPAC traditions will be carried forward by the combined council, including NAU’s 21st Warm Clothing Drive. The CSAC tradition begins in October. Anyone interested in getting involved with the drive can email the Staff Advisory Council president at Jose.DiazAquino@nau.edu.

Interested in joining the Staff Advisory Council?

The council is recruiting new members, and interested staff are asked to fill out the Staff Advisory Council Interest Form. The deadline to submit interest is Sept. 23.

The meetings are open to everyone in the NAU Community. The first meeting of the new council is at 9 a.m. on Sept. 23 in the ARD Large Pod. Zoom links are available on the Staff Advisory Council website. President José Luis Cruz Rivera will kick off the meeting with guest speakers Josh Mackey (chief human resources officer) and Bjorn Flugstad (vice president of finance).

Original source can be found here.